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Ghana's talks with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, for an economic rescue programme could yield fruits in the first quarter of 2023, a JoyNews reportage monitored by GhanaWeb has said.

According to the report, sources close to the IMF made this revelation after a crunch meeting between the officials of the fund and Parliament’s Finance Committee on Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

The IMF source, according to the report said, "the Fund is seriously concerned about the country’s debt position and will undertake a debt sustainability analysis before agreeing on a deal with the government."

The Minority side of the Committee in the crunch meeting raised issues over the government’s debt and tasked the IMF officials to ensure the deal would not worsen the country’s debt position.

"It also emerged at this closed-door meeting that the earliest government can hope to get a deal with the IMF is at the end of the first quarter of 2023 despite the precarious economic situation which needs immediate assistance.

"The IMF team also raised issues about the country’s international reserves and tasked both sides of the political divide to find means to shore (it) up," the reportage added.

On July 1, 2022, the President directed the Finance Minister to approach the IMF with an economic programme after months of the cedi’s free-fall and hikes in fuel prices and general rise in cost of living.

This was despite the insistence of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, government functionaries and President Akufo-Addo that Ghana will not return to the IMF.